Is Blockchain, Bitcoin Hype Translating into Real Jobs?

To say there’s a lot of hype around Bitcoin and Blockchain is an understatement: within the past two months, the price of Bitcoin skyrocketed to nearly $20,000 per “coin” before spectacularly crashing, and executives everywhere seem to be chattering about what Blockchain can do for them, even if they have no idea how the technology actually works.

For those unfamiliar with Blockchain, it’s one of those concepts that’s both simple and devilishly complex. In very basic terms, a blockchain is a distributed database that maintains a chain of “blocks,” or records with a timestamp and a link to the previous block. It’s extremely difficult (if not impossible) for a user to retroactively alter the data within a block without someone noticing; in theory, this makes blockchains secure by design, and ideal for everything from transaction processing to identity confirmation and, yes, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Diving into historical data, we can see that Blockchain-related job postings rose throughout 2016 and 2017, from virtually none to current levels. The number of companies seeking Blockchain skills also ticked upward, to a few dozen. The number of candidates applying for those jobs was healthy, suggesting there are clearly tech professionals who want to work with the technology.

Demand for Bitcoin jobs, meanwhile, fluctuated throughout 2016 and 2017, with only a very small handful of companies seeking tech pros skilled in the e-currency. Nor did these jobs attract nearly as many applicants most months as the jobs demanding Blockchain skills.

Will Blockchain-related jobs increase over the next few years? That depends on companies deciding the technology will actually benefit their operations. Certainly there are specialized uses for it; utilized for bookkeeping or records-management, for example, it could ensure a high degree of transparency and fraud prevention. In a similar fashion, Blockchain could be used to boost the security and privacy of healthcare records.

That evolution will depend on companies making an effort to research what Blockchain can do for them; and that might necessitate tech pros explaining the potential benefits to executives. But if the technology sees more adoption, it could spark the creation of related jobs.

Related Jobs

Salary Predictor

Estimated base salary using job title, location, and skills.

More About Dice Salary Predictions

Where does this estimate come from?

Dice predicts salary ranges based on the job title, location, and skills listed in
individual job descriptions. Our proprietary machine-learning algorithm uses more
than 600,000 data points to make its predictions. To get the most accurate
prediction of the salary you might earn, customize the prediction in your Dice
profile. Actual salary offered by employer may vary.

How was this salary estimate calculated?

Dice's predictive salary model is a proprietary machine-learning algorithm. Unlike
many other salary tools that require a critical mass of reported salaries for a
given combination of job title, location and experience, the Dice model can make
accurate predictions on even uncommon combinations of job factors. The model does
this by recognizing patterns in the more than 600,000 salary data points to infer
how much each factor - job title, location, experience, education, and skills - will
impact the salary.

YOUR CAREER. YOUR PATH.

Author Bio

Nick Kolakowski has written for The Washington Post, Slashdot, eWeek, McSweeney's, Thrillist, WebMD, Trader Monthly, and other venues. He's also the author of "A Brutal Bunch of Heartbroken Saps" and "Slaughterhouse Blues," a pair of noir thrillers.